Nothing Tops Mochas
by Hona Ikude
Summary: Three years passed since the Black Organization was taken down. Life has gone back to the way it was for our dear detective Kudo Shinichi, or so it seems. A certain moonlight magician isn't the only one making a comeback into Shinichi's life, for better or for worse. (Slow burn...?)
1. Chapter 1

They all raised their glasses until they clinked against each other amidst the lively occupants of the dimly lit and cramped yet comfortable interior. Bringing his glass back down to the dark wooden table, Shinichi relaxed as he watched his friends talk and eat and drink. It's been three years since he took down the Black Organization, along with the aid of the FBI and NPA. Not to mention it would have been nearly impossible to pull off without the help of a certain gentleman thief. Speaking of which, he hasn't pulled off a heist in over six months. It wasn't terribly out of character of the phantom thief to disappear from the eyes of the news media for a while, but it left a vague ache—an odd, slight yearning—that Shinichi couldn't shake off.

"Happy twenty first birthday!" The sweet voices of Ran and Kazuha drifted through the film of thoughts covering his consciousness, and saw that the two lovely brunettes seated in front of him had procured a slice of lemon pie, topped with two sparklers and a dollop of whipped cream. Hattori grinned at him with a mustache of foam upon his upper lip.

Shinichi smiled sincerely at his friends. In all truth, he had forgotten that today was his birthday, so when his friends and coworkers pulled him out of a cold case file and into the Izakaya Bon Temps in Shibuya, he was irritated to say the least. But Hattori told him to let his coworkers at the police station take care of everything for at least one night and to let loose for once. Not to mention, after seeing how hard Ran had worked to get this together for him, he certainly couldn't stay mad for long.

"Thanks guys, I appreciate it. A lot."

"I know," Ran replied, "You really need to stop working so hard and take better care of yourself."  
"'s 'xactly as she said, ya workaholic" Hattori but in

"Shut up. It's not like you can say anything Hattori."

Hattori gaped and glared at him before smiling and shaking his head, "I guess we both gotta take care of our health then, eh?"

"I'm glad ya finally understand," Kazuha laughs.

These people really were dear to him. They supported him in his times of need, even when he acted like an ass towards them. They still stuck by him, so he stuck by them. He did all that he could to protect these wonderful people by taking down the black organization. He still woke up in the middle of the night sometimes, his heart seized with terror of the "what ifs", however. Thus, these were the moments that felt like everything was going to be okay.

But of course, knowing his luck, that was when the all-too familiar shrill scream sounded throughout the Izakaya.

"I- I was… I just entered the bathroom to clean and because some guy was complaining about it… and then... Because I was on cleaning duty and… oh god…"

"Tamaki-san, if you could please calm down and tell us the exact details of how you found the body, that would be very helpful."

Shinichi was getting a witness statement from a certain Tamaki Natsuko, age twenty, who was part-timing at the Izakaya they were utilizing. She had let out the scream earlier that struck down the detective's musings.

Listening intently, Hattori stood by, no doubt already formulating his own theories as to what happened.

"I-I walked in and saw that the whole bathroom was flooded. I thought it was weird because bathrooms don't usually do that and… and that's… I opened the third stall and I saw him there, on the toilet. His eyes dull and lifeless… I. I can't," Tamaki's thin frame shook as she let out a slight sob and leaned against Kazuha who was speaking softly to her.

"Ya got any clue on what took place, Kudo?"

"Not yet. I need to get a good look at the body first."

The bathroom was wide enough for him to reach both of the walls if he reached out both of his hands as he stood in the middle. However, the bathroom made up for its cramped space with its stylish light wooden walls and a sleek, black, tiled floor, which was covered in about an inch of water as Tamaki had stated earlier. The body was staring off at the lights in the middle of the room's ceiling with blank eyes, light blue lips agape. All four limbs hung listlessly down. The victim's neck had dark finger-like bruises on its neck. Not to mention the skin that stretched over the victim's lean muscle had a slight blue-ish tint. Nothing in the bathroom—not the toilet paper, the plunger, nothing—save for the faucet of the lone sink had been knocked off, which was the cause for the slight flooding of the bathroom floor.

Stepping closer to the body, Hattori rifled through the body's pockets and found a small note, a phone, and a wallet.

"Based on th' driver's license from the wallet found in the victim's pocket, the victim was one Murata Eiji, age 28, lived in Shinjuku, Kabukicho. Based on th' softness and warmth of the body, along with the marks along his neck, poor ol' Murata was strangled to death no more than four hours ago."

Shinichi hummed in acknowledgement, mind already deep within a web of possibilities.

"What are you kids doing near the body!?" a grubby old voice snatched them both out of their thoughts and back to the present.

"Inspector Megure!"

Taking a lighter tone, the portly inspector stepped into view and smiled at them, "Ah, Kudo-kun. Wrapped up in another case, I see," the inspector eyeing the two lowered his voice, "However, as you're currently off duty, I suggest you step away from the crime scene and enjoy the rest of your night, though I would need you to stay in this Izakaya. You understand."

"Inspector-"

Megure gently pushed the two out from the bathroom without another word.

Hattori, changing his stance from earlier, seemed to sense Shinichi's unwillingness to step away from a case that happened right in front of him, nudged Shinichi towards the other customers. As a fellow detective, Hattori probably could relate to Shinichi's unwillingness to step away from a case, where he would get to take direct action to help solve it.

Receiving the message, Shinichi scanned the crowd to search for probably suspects. There were three possible suspects total that he could see out of the fifteen total customers.

The first had the mix of muscles and sinew bulging beneath his tan skin. Probably a bodybuilder, judging from the amount of food he and his friend ordered. His friend, the second suspect, was well built as well, but not to the extent as suspect number one. Perhaps they were a senpai-kouhai relationship?

"Would you mind answering a few questions?" Shinichi asked, stepping closer to the two with Hattori at his side.

"What about"

"Are you aware of the murder that took place here?"

Suspect number one scoffed and rolled his eyes, staring at the detectives in annoyance.

Despite the lack of a verbal response, Shinichi pressed on, "If you would state your name and age and your relation to Murata Eiji please."

"Tsujikura Koji. What's it to you how old I am? And I've never even heard of that Murara guy."

"It's just standard procedure sir. May I ask what you were doing approximately four hours ago?"

"What. Like, at six? I just got off working at my gym, invited little kouhai-kun here out to drink. I think the rest should be obvious, _Mr. Detective._"

"...Did you happen to notice anything strange when you were drinking here?"

"Beats Me."

Tsujikura's kouhai, who was silent and shaking his pale (as pale as tan skin could get) frame, suddenly spoke up, " was some guy who kept g-going up to the bathroom and coming back. He-h-he looked pretty angry too."

"Would you mind describing this man?"

The Kouhai removed his trembling hand from his chest to point at another muscular man (albeit not as much as Tsujikura) who was sitting across the room and sweat dripping down his narrowed eyes and pointed eyebrows.

"...Alright. Lastly, may I have your name and age, kouhai-san?"

Averting his eyes, the kouhai mumbled something or other.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

Tsujikura huffed loudly, shaking his head affectionately, "Dumbass. He's Okita Yuuto, 23"

Mumbling once again while shoving Tsujikura with a slight pout, Okita shied away from the two detectives.

"...Thank you both for your time."

Bowing, Shinichi left the two and headed over to the man that the kouhai pointed out as Hattori tsked and followed behind with an air of rumination.


	2. Chapter 2

Sitting, hunched over the bar counter, was a short, flamboyant man of a lean stature nursing a highball. His dyed blonde hair, multiple piercings, and array of tattoos led any nearby businessman to avoid sitting next to him at the counter. Shinichi approached him briskly.

"Excuse me sir, may we have a moment of your time?"

The man glared and let out a huff and grunted in a questioning manner.

"Are you aware of the murder that took place here?"

"Hell if I know," the man responded, taking a swig of his drink.

"If you would state your name, age, occupation, and your relation to Murata Eiji please."

"Why the fuck should I do that? You suspecting me of murder or something?"

"There has been a witness proclaiming that you have repeatedly headed towards the bathroom and caused a ruckus"

"Yeah, 'cuz some little shit locked themselves in the bathroom for like, the last fucking hour and I need to take a piss!" he yelled, jumping up from his seat and slamming the counter, "and now I can't go in there cuz it's blocked off for some reason?"

Shinichi scrunched his eyebrows together and tilted his head, "the door was unlocked before the police arrived. Why didn't you enter?"

"The fuck you mean it was open!? The little thingy was red when I went to take a piss an hour ago. Of course it was locked!"

The suspect slumped back into his seat viciously and proceeded to keep on muttering vehemently as he slushed his glass around.

Nudging Shinichi, Hattori mouthed _Let's move on to the next suspect_ before pushing him along.

Shaking his head, Shinichi motioned towards the bathroom, "I'll meet you there. I just need to check something first."

Hattori waved him off and turned to face the last suspect.

He was sitting in a lone booth at the edge of the Izakaya with a stony face. He was tall and lean. His stony, well-defined face, coupled with his hunched back, seemed to radiate an aura of darkness.

" S'cuse me sir, may ah have a moment of ya time?"

The fourth suspect stared at the Hattori with a thin film of emotion blocking his eyes from seeing properly. He nodded.

"Are ya aware of the murder that took place here?"

He stared at him for a little while before slowly nodding once again.

"If ya'd state your name, age, occupation, and ya's relation to Murata Eiji please."

"Fujimiya Issei. JMSDF. He-," The fourth suspect's voice cracked and he looked away. A few seconds later he looked back again and continued, "He was my friend from high school… We met up because we haven't seen each other in so long… so we could catch up, and um…"

Fujimiya looked down into his drink as his face switched between different emotions. He laughed a little "He was always so constipated. He uh, he always took so long in the bathroom…" Fujimiya's slight laughter slowly turned into little sobs, bringing his red-tipped fingers up to his eyes in defeat.

"...Thank ya for ya's time. I'm sorry for ya loss."

Shaking his head, Fujimiya's attention died out as the detective walked back to the crime scene.

Shinichi walked back to Hattori, his face scrunched up with interest.

"...What a depressing guy"

Deadpanning, Shinichi motioned in a quizzical manner.

"What? I get tha' the last suspect was grieving and all, but he was extra depressing," Hattori shrugged.

"Anyway, he was friends with the victim an' said they haven't seen each other since high school. Said the victim was constipated and usually spent a long time in the bathroom. His fingertips were a weird red too. I dunno if that's a medical or what but he needs to get that checked."

Shaking his head with a sigh, Shinichi supplied, "Well, the previous suspect was right about the bathroom occupancy indicator being red. Someone colored it in with what appears to be a red paint pan. It also turns out that the victim was poisoned with hemlock, conium maculatum, along with being strangled, which doesn't make sense because it's such overkill. However, that also means that the victim's estimated time of death was later than we first, though, because of the conium's muscle atrophy side effect. So…"

A loud shout then reached the two detective's ears from the bar. The suspect with the bleached hair was yanking a wad of the bartender's collar with his fist and snarling incoherently. Jumping forward to intervene, Hattori was stopped by Shinichi's sudden grip around his shoulder as Takagi-keiji broke the bartender and suspect apart before dragging the suspect away.

Hattori shrugged out of Shinichi's grip and made his way to the bartender, "Ya okay there, sir?"

"I'm fine," the bartender replied, smoothing out his shirt as would a ruffled bird, "Just tired of dealing with him all the time. He's a troublesome fellow."

"Does he come 'ere often?"

"Unfortunately, he does. He's well known for picking fights with the workers or other customers around these parts. He's on all of our black-lists."

The bartender laughed gruffly, his shoulders drooping considerably, "He just got into another bar fight earlier this evening. I thought he'd be done for the night but-" the bartender mumbled incoherently.

"Do ya happen ta know his name or remember what time that was?"

"Yeah. He's Hayashida Toramaru. Uh… I think it was around… six pm? He was taken to the police station for a bit because I called the cops on him, ha. Serves him right. I hate that he still came in like three hours later, but it's whatever"

"Thanks for ya time"

Shrugging, the bartender turned back to whatever he was working on as the two detectives walked off.

"Who do ya think did it, Kudo?"

Shinichi shrugged, smiling cryptically.

Narrowing his eyes, Hattori stared for a few seconds before letting go with a huff.

"Bro, what happened to your hand?"

Shinichi's pupil shot over to the source of the voice and saw Okita whisper frantically to his senpai, shrinking his body away from any nearby people.

Shinichi let his gaze slide back to Megure-Keibu, who was now advancing upon Tamaki-san and the three-(three?) girls that were comforting her. One of the girls looked almost identical to each Ran, although there were subtle differences in build, bone structure, and hair and skin color.

"No! Why do I have to kill someone I've never even met before?" Tamaki-san was glaring at the police officers with eyes that were brimming with tears, "Yeah, he might have flirted with me and I may have found his advances to be disgusting but that doesn't mean I wanted to kill him! Plus I wouldn't even have the time to kill him! I was serving tables the whole time."

She sniffled and the girl who looked like Ran grimaced sympathetically and rubbed her back.

A myriad of gears whirred at double time, exponentially gaining speed, inside Shinichi's head, letting all the pieces of the puzzle make their way to their designated place.

"Megure-keibu, I don't believe that Tamaki-san is the offender in this case."

Shinichi glanced over at Hattori, who had already realized his intentions, and was ushering forth the suspects: Tsujikura Koji, Okita Yuuto, Hayashida Toramaru, and Fujimiya Issei.

"Although Tamaki-san was in the position to most easily poison the late Murata-san, she is not the killer. Due to the toxicity of poison hemlock, there was no way she could have mixed it into his food or drink without putting herself and other customers in danger. Furthermore, and I do not mean to offend, but I highly doubt she would be able to leave such bruises upon Murata-san, even when taking into account the weakened state that he would have been in, due to the poison."

Tamaki-san's shoulders drooped slowly as she leaned into the girls' comforting touch.

Sighing, Megure's head drooped slightly, in resignation. "Then who do you make out the killer to be, Shinichi-kun?"

Letting his eyes slide over to the true killer, his body followed suit and turned accordingly as Shinichi pointed a certain muscular, yet gangly suspect.

"Fujimiya Issei-san, it was you."

He felt the general audience collectively draw in a breath.

"The bathroom occupancy indicator was made to look constantly occupied by coloring the indicator in with a red paint pen. Fujimiya-san, your fingertips are unnaturally red at the end. You were also the only other person who was able to poison Murata-san's food without raising much suspicion. You probably poisoned his drink with ground hemlock while he was busy flirting with Tamaki-san. Am I wrong?"

Fujimiya-san was pushed along to the police car waiting outside, his head hanging low.

"Is everything okay, Shinichi?" Ran looked at him with wide, warm eyes as he and Hattori met back up with the girls.

Bringing his hands up behind his back, Hattori smiled at them, "Don't ya worry 'bout it. We caught the killer, no big deal. We just got 'ta go give our statements down at the police station."

Nodding, Kazuha smiled at him,"I'll meet ya at the hotel then, Heiji!"

"Shinichi, be careful, ok? Oh, and we'll be meeting up with these lovely folks tomorrow!" Ran pulled the girl that looked like her, along with a young man who looked suspiciously like him. He smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head with a slightly bent posture.

"Y-you're-"

Cutting him off, Ran pushed Shinichi towards the door. "And Don't. Be. Late. Mkay? We're meeting at the café next to Beika station at 2:00 pm."


	3. Chapter 3

How could Kaito have been so blind? How could he have let himself reveal his true identity to Meitantei in that manner? Sure he wouldn't have been able to disguise himself with Aoko there, and sure he may have known that he goes to the same Touto university that he does, and sure Touto university is only one train station away from Shinjuku station. Either way, it was too late now. He can't show up with a disguise without being suspicious, and he supposed that Meitantei would be in the same boat as that Hakubastard, where they couldn't prosecute him without evidence. He just hoped that Meitantei wouldn't be as annoying (which, some deeper part of him seemed to highly doubt, but that's not important).

Sending a quick text to Aoko, he stepped back as people passed by from the open train door, before looking back up and walking over to the opposite side's train door to stare off into the grey urban scenery before him.

The door let out a light jingle as Kaito pushed it open. Spotting his childhood friend's waving hand, he strutted over to her and the two other people at her table.

"Look who finally decided to show up!" scrunching her nose, she stuck out her tongue at him, "You owe each of us a cup of coffee for your _belated arrival_."

Dropping himself into the seat besides Aoko, he flashed the two sitting across from him the most charming smile he could muster, "Hold on just a minute now, Aoko. Aren't you supposed to introduce me to these lovely folks first?"

With a puff of smoke, he let two yellow roses appear in his hand for the two to take, "Kuroba Kaito at your service."

"Wow, so we both went to the same university but never noticed each other? What a coincidence!" Kaito laughed, knowing that he was actually just avoiding the detective and had seen the other on campus a few times.

He stole a glance towards his childhood friend and Mouri-san gushing over the menu items by the café counter.

"Yeah… A _coincidence_…" Shinichi replied porting a wry smile.

Returning his focus back to the subject sitting across from him, he slowly swished his hot chocolate around in its cup as he asked cooly, "What's your major? Are you in any clubs or circles?"

"I'm majoring in law, while dabbling with forensic science on the side. usually busy interning for the Tokyo metropolitan police department or doing work for my classes, but I do sometimes show my face at some of the mystery literature circle's meetings."

Kaito hummed in interest. Of course that's how Meitantei decides to spend his free time. What did he expect?

"What about you, Kuroba-san?

"I know you wouldn't be able to tell by how fabulous I come off, but I'm actually majoring in Physics, which isn't as boring as it sounds. I'm also a member of the Magic Appreciation circle and the culinary circle."

Aoko decided that then would be the perfect time to slam the receipt in front of Kaito while simultaneously balancing a raspberry tart laid delicately onto a porcelain in her other hand. She stuck her tongue out and walked around him to her seat as Ran supplied, "You should take Shinichi with you to one of the culinary circle's meetings! Then I wouldn't have to visit so often to make you food, and you get to make a new friend! It's perfect!"

Face turning slack, Shinichi stammered out vague protests.

"What a wonderful idea! They meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 1700 to 2100 at a nearby culinary classroom! We should exchange numbers."

Ran hummed eagerly, already inputting Shinichi's number into Kaito's phone. Shinichi resisted the urge to smack his forehead and resorted to smiling amiably. It couldn't hurt to befriend a possible Kaitou Kid suspect, would it?

"You are going. End of discussion."

"But Raaaann," Shinichi slumped down at the bar counter, "I can't keep up with his energy! I'm doomed to be awkward the whole time."

A classmate waved to him from across the bar, beckoning him towards an empty seat surrounded by his fellow circle members.

"At least give it a try, Shinichi. What won't kill you makes you stronger."

Rolling his eyes, he absently motioned the bartender over, "Fine. But if things go awry, you can't force me to meet him again."

"Deal." Shinichi could just hear her smugness dripping through his phone's speaker.

He turned his phone off and slipped it back into his pocket and sighed. Dropping his head down onto the counter, he contemplated (overthought, more like) about the events to come.

"Aw, come on. Am I that bad?"

Recognizing the owner of the voice, Shinichi felt his face grow heated and he shot up to face Kaito and turned to the seat next to him. No one there. Confused, he turned to look on his other side until he spotted Kaito standing behind the bar counter with a towel over his shoulder and a shaker in his hand.

"Ku-Kuroba-san? You're a bartender?"

"Just to make ends meet. And to people watch"

Shinichi hummed appreciatively, "Huh. How do you manage to balance uni, circle activities, a social life, and a part-time job?"

Not to mention, if Kaito really was Kid as he suspected, then that meant he had to balance heist planning on top of his already hectic schedule. Nobody could be that busy and keep from burning out or messing up, right? Maybe he really wasn't Kaitou Kid. But then again, if anyone was going to keep up with such a crazy schedule, Kaitou Kid was the only one who could.

"What can I say," Kaito winked, pulling Shinichi from his thoughts, "I have my ways..."

Either way, Shinichi felt himself relax a little. Maybe spending time with Kaito one-on-one wouldn't be so bad.

"So, what would you like to drink?"

"Huh?"Shinichi blinked at the other for a few moments, "Oh, no. I'm fine, thank you."

"Ah, come on!" Kaito tossed the shaker with a flourish and it landed in his other hand. Placing it on the counter, he continued, "It's on the house."

Shoulders slumping, Shinichi let out a playful huff of exasperation before a small smile placed itself onto his lips. Might as well.

"Fine. What would you recommend?"

The magician hummed thoughtfully. He scanned his surroundings for a while before breaking into a grin and muttering "ooh, I know! How about..." He busied himself, occasionally disappearing under the counter and such, before setting himself in front of the detective with a cocktail in hand.

He placed it gently in front of Shinichi and leaned forward to murmur, "enjoy~" before withdrawing with a smirk and leaving to tend to the other customers.

Blushing, Shinichi took the cocktail (flustered to the core) and walked to where his classmates had beckoned him moments before.

One of the upperclassmen leered at him as he sat down and bumped his shoulder, saying "Looks like someone ordered takeout~*"

Scoffing, Shinichi shot back, "I don't know what you're talking about, Takeshita-senpai. Please mind your own business."

Takeshita cackled and nudged him, "Aah, come on! I didn't know that the no-nonsense computer man was secretly a player! This is the funniest thing that's ever happened all night."

A light and playful voice called out, "Yo what's all this about Takeshita?"

A light haired upperclassmen butt in between the two, swinging her heavily perfumed arms around them both.

"Yamane-senpai, please tell him to leave me alone."

"Why? What's going on?"

Pulling Yamane closer, Takeshita stage-whispered, "Kudo-kun's secretly a player"

She let out a stark laugh and waved her hand animatedly, saying, "No way! Really? That's so great"

Slumping down onto the table, Shinichi let out a groan knowing that they would continue to bring it up in future circle activities. He looked up, ignoring his upperclassmen loudly (and frankly, incorrectly) speculating about his 'secret' love life and took a sip of the cocktail. It wasn't sickly sweet nor was it overbearing with the bitterness of alcohol. Instead it was refreshingly fruity with just the right amount of alcohol. How did he know what he would like? It might be that the magician just gave him the most popular drink, but looking around the bar he observed the lack of drinks that looked similar to his. Perhaps during the long hours that they spent devising a plan to overthrow the organization, they had gotten to know each other better than he had initially thought. Weird how a single cocktail could make him feel so… so… paid attention to.

Throughout the rest of the night, his fellow circle members mingled and discussed mystery literature, a few arguments on which mystery author is better popped up here and there, but Shinichi kept a passive eye on Kaito and absent-mindedly interacted with the others. He wondered whether he should approach Kaito and ask when he got off or to simply wait to find time that they could be alone and _talk_.

Then, apparently noticing that Shinichi had been watching him, Kaito met his gaze from across the bar and winked.

Coughing, Shinichi quickly looked away and focused his attention to the person sitting adjacent to him and pretended that the hotness growing in his face was from the alcohol.

*In Japanese, taking someone home (In that ~impure~ ufufu context) can be referred to as "takeout"  
A/N: Sorry for the long wait, I started university and it's been pretty busy. I will try to post more frequently but can't guarantee anything.


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